Weapon seem to love metal. Like, love metal. Like, they're in love with it. Like, pin up black-and-white photos of it in their closets they take after its Wednesday evening dance classes, in love with it.

Lucky for us, metal's into that kind of rain-jacket, rape-van stalky stuff; Relapse has taken care to finally show the broader metal world how much Weapon cares about metal in this here full-length, metal-as-fuck, (in) love poem for it.

The big-name production has Lysolled up these guys' dirtier, underground feel to an extent, but they've shoved their big-name money in all the right holes, emphasizing all of the nuance, and homage-ery of Weapon's style in turn. And, fucking a, their style is cool.

Think a Tarantino-vein black/death band; they bring modern techniques to old styles, injecting traditional metal-like patterns with blasts, growls, and ample pinch harmonics, paying their respects right and left to a solid chunk of the heavy/extreme sub-genres. But they do that without ever sounding bland or too heard-it-before. They're a derivative group through and through, but what they play never sounds contrived. They sound like they play what they play because they love metal, not because they know what sells and they're fame-hungry. So, a strong kudos for that. These guys have heart.

There are gripes to be had here, though. The vox-work is a tad too far on the breathy/weak side (some of the time), the double-bass work sounds a bit plasticky (on occasion), some of the riff work veers on the overly-simple/yet-somehow-too-exuberant end of the black/death map, and some of the songs on this are quite a bit more boring than others. It's a hit-and-miss, streaky, (more likable) Carmello Anthony kind of disc in the end.

But when it's missing, it's still a headbanging good time and when it's hitting, it hits fucking hard. It's a fun time for people who like fun metal.

I would probably be more interested in this if the cover art wasn't so lame and like just had a really badass logo. When you call your band WEAPON you really should be going all out in the logo department.

I would probably be more interested in this if the cover art wasn't so lame and like just had a really badass logo. When you call your band WEAPON you really should be going all out in the logo department.

Probably not enough to form valid judgment on though lol

The fact that they don't even have a band logo on the cover is disappointing. And yes, the cover art is lame. Probably makes sense to hear the leaked version before buying a physical copy, I guess.

Big fan of their previous releases. This one is missing something. I suspect the ultra clear/unlayered production makes things sound too simplistic. The dark atmosphere is gone and we're left with a very simple death metal album. The dark black metal parts and most of the off kilter aggression is gone and now we have a middle of the road release. Hopefully the next release will bring some of the extremity and darkness back.

The previous albums had production issues but they never left me bored for any length of time....this does.